Mónica Mahamud (CEIP Alonso Berruguete) nos cuenta cómo ha ido la primera observación con Cristina Sanz y lo que han hecho en clase:
Hello everyone! Monica and I had our first meeting on teams a while back, we introduced ourselves and
talked about the options we had to develop this great project, as well as the things that could be useful
to observe. Since we both teach pre-primary students and Mónica having a broader experience, we
thought it would be fantastic for me to observe her routine and most importantly learn how she is
introducing and working on phonics.
Although we haven’t had the opportunity to be together in a class, I have to thank Monica for recording
a whole class and sharing her resources. It’s been great to be able to watch a real class, the good part
of it has been that I could watch the video as much as I needed and paid attention to different details.
Now, that I have watched the video and written down some questions, we are ready to arrange our
second meeting. In this sense, we are going to have an online meeting on teams, where Mónica could help
me understand different aspects of her methodology and I could also share my ideas.
These are the notes I took during the first observation and some resources used during the class.
Monica had a lot of resources prepared beforehand, there is also a specific area of the class devoted to
English, like an English corner.
The class follows a prepared structure divided into four main parts.
1. Introduction: Hello, calendar…
2. Speaking time: Questions and answers
3. Phonics: Songs, phoneme classification, game.
4. Calm down
There is always a student who acts as a helper, or as they call it: The ring master of the day, who helps the
teacher to introduce the routines and ask questions.
* INTRODUCTION: Hello songs, numbers, the weather,....
1. Action Song: Hello, hello. They start the class with an action song, the teacher sings the songs, so there
is no need to rely on media, I really appreciated this fact, as I think sometimes we tend to overuse
digital tools and it’s really important to use them only as a resource, not as the main part of the English
class.
2. Question: How are you today? Visual support with flashcards, students asks and answers in turns
depending on the flashcard shown. It’s a great idea since all have to ask and answer, so they practice
their listening and speaking skills while they review vocabulary or grammar structures or even learn new
ones.
3. Action Song: This is the way I wake up…have breakfast…wash my face…wash my hands…brush my
teeth…. Put on my clothes…. Comb my hair…go to school…sit down….
4. Calendar and weather: Days of the week with flashcards. (It reminds me of the popular dance: La
Macarena, I love it, and I can include it easily in my routine.
Yesterday was… today is… Is it… Questions with flashcards: Is it Wednesday? No it isn’t.
Numbers: They count until the day they are in
Months: Review the months, first altogether, then, each student in turns says a month.
Seasons: Song: Spring, summer, autumn, winter….
5. The ring master asks questions with the help of flashcards. For example: Is it sunny? Class: No, it isn’t.
6. Song: Today, it’s Wednesday, what´s the weather like…?
2nd part: questions
The ring master of the day asks questions, he/she reads them aloud and chooses one student to answer it.
Examples: What’s the weather like today? What season is it? How are you today? Where is…?
3
rd PART: PHONICS:
S-A-T-P-I-N-C
Phonics is a method of teaching students to read by training them to associate written letters with their
sounds.
Activities
-Which sound is it? Monica shows them pictures and reviews the phonemes.
-They sing the “phonics” songs related to each phoneme like: A, a, ants on my arm, are causing me alarm!
-Introduce a new sound. Monica sings the song associated to the phoneme and shows them pictures beginning
with these phonemes, for example: “We are clicking castanets, /c/, /c/, /c/”
-Read and match game: Students place each picture following the beginning phoneme.
4
th PART: BACK TO CALM- BYE BYE
BYE BYE action song.
